Anti-French Protests in Niger Kill 5 as Rallies Hit Africa, Middle East, Asia
Charlie Hebdo’s Post-Attack Issue Stokes Anger, Scores of Demonstrations
By MAX COLCHESTER in Paris And DREW HINSHAW in Accra, Ghana
Jan. 17, 2015 6:27 p.m. ET
Protesters in Niger killed five people as they wrecked bars, torched churches, and blocked several major roads Saturday, in a second day of protests over a French magazine cover depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The violence was the latest in a wave of anti-French protests that has swept parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia after Charlie Hebdo lampooned Islam in its “survivors” issue published after the Jan. 7 attack on its Paris offices.
Although largely peaceful, some of the protests, lead mostly by young men, have in some instances turned violent.
Coming just a week after dozens of world leaders joined a massive procession in Paris to condemn terror attacks and show their support for freedom of speech, the protests underscore the challenge France faces in defending long-held values without fueling resentment among Muslims, many of whom regard the Charlie Hebdo cover as blasphemy.
“It is intolerable,” French President François Hollande said Saturday, commenting on the Niger violence and news that French flags had been torched during several demonstrations across Africa.
After the attack that decimated their newsroom, the remaining Charlie Hebdo caricaturists rallied to produce an issue—published Wednesday with a planned circulation of seven-million copies—that has been widely celebrated as a symbol of defiance against terrorism.
The cover featured a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad holding a “Je Suis Charlie” sign under the headline “All Is Forgiven.”
Angering many moderate Muslims, the caricature risks playing into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists who paint a picture of a Europe that is bent on desecrating the faith, several Muslim leaders said.
Saudi Arabia’s top religious authority, the Council of Senior Ulema, condemned the decision and said it has nothing to do with freedom of expression.
‘Angering many moderate Muslims, the caricature risks playing into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists who paint a picture of a Europe that is bent on desecrating the faith, several Muslim leaders said.’
“Hurting the feelings of Muslims by these drawings doesn’t serve a cause or achieve a rightful goal,” the council’s secretary-general Fahad Al Majed said in a statement Friday. “In the end, it is a service to extremists who seek justifications for murder and terrorism.”
Government and religious leaders in Iraq and Egypt also condemned the decision to publish the magazine.
Protesters in Niger, Mali and Senegal appeared also upset at their leaders’ decision to attend the Paris march in support of Charlie Hebdo last Sunday. Opposition leaders in Niger, in particular, condemned the march.
In Niger’s capital city protesters awoke early Saturday and began setting fire to churches, looting shops, and ransacking establishments that serve alcohol, said Ousmane Toudou, an adviser to Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou.
The government sent in Islamic elders to try and speak to the rioting young men—followed by police, he added. After the crowd dispersed, security forces found two bodies burned in a church, and another three bludgeoned to death in a bar: “These were people who were just going to work,” he said.
It was the second day of demonstrations in the country. On Friday, rioters in Zinder,—a city a few hours’ drive from Boko Haram’s heartland in northern Nigeria,—burned churches, ransacked a French cultural center, stormed a police station, and proceeded to a military barracks.
Four people were killed in the clashes that followed, including one police officer crushed by a vehicle, the government’s Nigerian Press Agency said.
“This is chaos that has been created,” Mr. Toudou said.
Protests began in Pakistan and spread west to Turkey and the Middle East. In Istanbul on Friday, a group sympathetic to al Qaeda staged a rally in support of the militants who stormed Charlie Hebdo. The group held a funeral prayer in honor of Said and Chérif Kouachi, the two brothers who attacked the Charlie Hebdo magazine. Some there held a banner bearing a photo of Osama bin-Laden.
Meantime, a largely peaceful demonstration made its way toward the French embassy in Jordan. There was also a marches in several cities in Pakistan.
In Senegal, hundreds protested in the capital of Dakar on Friday, the government’s Senegalese Press Agency said. The country which is, one of Africa’s most frequently-cited examples of religious tolerance, banned the distribution of the magazine.
Thousands more marched in Mauritania’s capital of Nouakchott on Friday and in Mali’s capital of Bamako on Saturday.
The march in Mali marked a sharp change in sentiment toward France.
Just two years ago, this month, Bamako was draped in French flags, with children signing “Merci, France!” at passing French people, after the French army helped the country fight back al Qaeda militants who had seized a string of towns in Mali’s north.
Mr. Hollande said Saturday that while he could understand some countries don’t share France’s conception of right to free speech, he expected solidarity from nations Paris has supported in their fights against radical Islamists.
“Some countries may sometimes not get what is freedom of speech because they have been deprived of it,” Mr. Hollande told French radio. “But we have backed those countries against terrorism.”
Like Mali, Niger is part of a chain of former French colonies striving to build a secular democracy in the French model, with children attending French language schools, and a constitution echoing the language of the French Revolution.
But the country and the broader region are also awash with al Qaeda-styled groups, such as Nigeria’s Boko Haram, seeking to argue that France is mortally opposed to Islam.
In addition to Mali, Paris has sent troops to Niger to try and help contain insurgents, who themselves are now using the Charlie Hebdo cover to stoke outrage against France.
“We were happy with what happened to France’s people,” Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video released this week, referring to the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a kosher grocery in Paris. “Their blood was spilled inside their country.”
--Ahmed Al Omran, Nour Malas, Maria Abi-Habib and Emre Peker contributed to this article.
Write to Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com and Drew Hinshaw at drew.hinshaw@wsj.com
By MAX COLCHESTER in Paris And DREW HINSHAW in Accra, Ghana
Jan. 17, 2015 6:27 p.m. ET
Protesters in Niger killed five people as they wrecked bars, torched churches, and blocked several major roads Saturday, in a second day of protests over a French magazine cover depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
The violence was the latest in a wave of anti-French protests that has swept parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia after Charlie Hebdo lampooned Islam in its “survivors” issue published after the Jan. 7 attack on its Paris offices.
Although largely peaceful, some of the protests, lead mostly by young men, have in some instances turned violent.
Coming just a week after dozens of world leaders joined a massive procession in Paris to condemn terror attacks and show their support for freedom of speech, the protests underscore the challenge France faces in defending long-held values without fueling resentment among Muslims, many of whom regard the Charlie Hebdo cover as blasphemy.
“It is intolerable,” French President François Hollande said Saturday, commenting on the Niger violence and news that French flags had been torched during several demonstrations across Africa.
After the attack that decimated their newsroom, the remaining Charlie Hebdo caricaturists rallied to produce an issue—published Wednesday with a planned circulation of seven-million copies—that has been widely celebrated as a symbol of defiance against terrorism.
The cover featured a caricature of the Prophet Muhammad holding a “Je Suis Charlie” sign under the headline “All Is Forgiven.”
Angering many moderate Muslims, the caricature risks playing into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists who paint a picture of a Europe that is bent on desecrating the faith, several Muslim leaders said.
Saudi Arabia’s top religious authority, the Council of Senior Ulema, condemned the decision and said it has nothing to do with freedom of expression.
‘Angering many moderate Muslims, the caricature risks playing into the hands of Islamic fundamentalists who paint a picture of a Europe that is bent on desecrating the faith, several Muslim leaders said.’
“Hurting the feelings of Muslims by these drawings doesn’t serve a cause or achieve a rightful goal,” the council’s secretary-general Fahad Al Majed said in a statement Friday. “In the end, it is a service to extremists who seek justifications for murder and terrorism.”
Government and religious leaders in Iraq and Egypt also condemned the decision to publish the magazine.
Protesters in Niger, Mali and Senegal appeared also upset at their leaders’ decision to attend the Paris march in support of Charlie Hebdo last Sunday. Opposition leaders in Niger, in particular, condemned the march.
In Niger’s capital city protesters awoke early Saturday and began setting fire to churches, looting shops, and ransacking establishments that serve alcohol, said Ousmane Toudou, an adviser to Niger President Mahamadou Issoufou.
The government sent in Islamic elders to try and speak to the rioting young men—followed by police, he added. After the crowd dispersed, security forces found two bodies burned in a church, and another three bludgeoned to death in a bar: “These were people who were just going to work,” he said.
It was the second day of demonstrations in the country. On Friday, rioters in Zinder,—a city a few hours’ drive from Boko Haram’s heartland in northern Nigeria,—burned churches, ransacked a French cultural center, stormed a police station, and proceeded to a military barracks.
Four people were killed in the clashes that followed, including one police officer crushed by a vehicle, the government’s Nigerian Press Agency said.
“This is chaos that has been created,” Mr. Toudou said.
Protests began in Pakistan and spread west to Turkey and the Middle East. In Istanbul on Friday, a group sympathetic to al Qaeda staged a rally in support of the militants who stormed Charlie Hebdo. The group held a funeral prayer in honor of Said and Chérif Kouachi, the two brothers who attacked the Charlie Hebdo magazine. Some there held a banner bearing a photo of Osama bin-Laden.
Meantime, a largely peaceful demonstration made its way toward the French embassy in Jordan. There was also a marches in several cities in Pakistan.
In Senegal, hundreds protested in the capital of Dakar on Friday, the government’s Senegalese Press Agency said. The country which is, one of Africa’s most frequently-cited examples of religious tolerance, banned the distribution of the magazine.
Thousands more marched in Mauritania’s capital of Nouakchott on Friday and in Mali’s capital of Bamako on Saturday.
The march in Mali marked a sharp change in sentiment toward France.
Just two years ago, this month, Bamako was draped in French flags, with children signing “Merci, France!” at passing French people, after the French army helped the country fight back al Qaeda militants who had seized a string of towns in Mali’s north.
Mr. Hollande said Saturday that while he could understand some countries don’t share France’s conception of right to free speech, he expected solidarity from nations Paris has supported in their fights against radical Islamists.
“Some countries may sometimes not get what is freedom of speech because they have been deprived of it,” Mr. Hollande told French radio. “But we have backed those countries against terrorism.”
Like Mali, Niger is part of a chain of former French colonies striving to build a secular democracy in the French model, with children attending French language schools, and a constitution echoing the language of the French Revolution.
But the country and the broader region are also awash with al Qaeda-styled groups, such as Nigeria’s Boko Haram, seeking to argue that France is mortally opposed to Islam.
In addition to Mali, Paris has sent troops to Niger to try and help contain insurgents, who themselves are now using the Charlie Hebdo cover to stoke outrage against France.
“We were happy with what happened to France’s people,” Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video released this week, referring to the attacks on Charlie Hebdo and a kosher grocery in Paris. “Their blood was spilled inside their country.”
--Ahmed Al Omran, Nour Malas, Maria Abi-Habib and Emre Peker contributed to this article.
Write to Max Colchester at max.colchester@wsj.com and Drew Hinshaw at drew.hinshaw@wsj.com
No comments:
Post a Comment